Why we can't have simple B/W PDF's to print

[Treebore]

Copied from the Paizo boards:

""What is the feasibility of having a simple B/W version of the PAthfinder PDF with simple B/W text, and simple black lined maps?

Obviously for cheap and easy printing.

I've asked this question before but can't find the thread in which I posted it."


This won't happen, alas. We'd have to purchase an entire new set of maps for each Pathfinder to do it, and would have to re-layout the entire thing. We barely have enough manpower as it is to keep Pathfinder going (we're slowly catching up on our schedule... but only by putting in 60+ hour weeks). And paying for those black & white maps would have to come out of the main product's budget, which is already pretty tight.

So unfortunately... this is a no-can-do.

Doing a map supplement like we did for Dungeon where we provide maps without the number tags is much more doable... but not until we get Pathfinder itself caught up and back on schedule. Which probably won't be for a few months."



Thanks to James Jacobs for the response!

So now we know why Paizo, and presumably even smaller publishers, can't give us this nice benefit.

Plus now we have an idea when we might see "map packs" like Paizo did for the Dungeon content done for their Pathfinder and GameMAstery lines.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

Am I the only person with a printer that has an option to print grayscale only, which does not use any of the color ink to print black text?

 

[humble minion]

I think the real issue is how many PDF publishers release their products with a non-white background, that, while looking pretty on screen, eats up the ink for no purpose and makes the printed copy look grubby in b/w.

If a pdf is intended for use at the table (and most them, including ALL adventures, are), it really should have a plain white backdrop with minimal borders and other frippery. Anything else is just sacrificing gameability in the interests of letting the layout/graphic design staff have fun with their colour palettes, imho...

 

[Kyuss Knight]

If a pdf is intended for use at the table (and most them, including ALL adventures, are), it really should have a plain white backdrop with minimal borders and other frippery. Anything else is just sacrificing gameability in the interests of letting the layout/graphic design staff have fun with their colour palettes, imho...

I have to second this. I know a fair number of gamers are bringing their laptops to the table these days, but I find it hard to believe that they are the majority. Throw some of us not-quite-so-high-tech folks a bone!

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

I know some maps can look pretty bad in grayscale....

But most will get the job done (having printed many Color Maps on a Greyscale Printer) & most are pretty usable.

Heck, I'm not real sure what the problem is. I usually just print via Adobe PDF set to Grayscale for the various documents I use at Work & Home.

I'm not real sure why the Software Suite as Paizo can't do what I can do at work from:

MS Publsiher, Word (all of Office actually), IE, Photoshop, Publisher, AutoCAD, & various other programs to boot.

In fact, I usually skip fancy full color PDF's with Fancy Borders as the Waste of Ink they are.

 

[Hussar]

I'm not even sure why this would be such a load of work. I mean, you can strip out the background layer with a couple of clicks, change the settings to greyscale and you're done. Photoshop does this pretty easily.

Then again, I've never really understood why the map packs for Dungeon were so difficult to create. I mean, cut and paste isn't all that tricky. They've already got the images in digital form. It should be done as they're putting the issue together.

Now, if we can just get WOTC to do the same thing.

 

[jdrakeh]

Am I the only person with a printer that has an option to print grayscale only, which does not use any of the color ink to print black text?

Yeah. My thought exactly. And most newer printers can do greyscale with extremely high resolution so there is minimal (if any) quality loss. That said, as a new acquaintance of mine mentioned last week -- gamers are unreasonable people.

 

[Scribble]

Am I the only person with a printer that has an option to print grayscale only, which does not use any of the color ink to print black text?

You're still using a ton of black ink.

I think the idea is simply to have a low budget map... you know 1st edition style. Just enough lines and stuff to show the map without it having to look all pretty. (and therefore ink expensive.)

 

[Treebore]

You're still using a ton of black ink.

I think the idea is simply to have a low budget map... you know 1st edition style. Just enough lines and stuff to show the map without it having to look all pretty. (and therefore ink expensive.)

Exactly.

 

[Gort]

The thing that annoys me most in this vein is when book publishers insist on making their character sheets - the ONE THING that the players will definitely photocopy or print off a bunch of times - full of pictures and decorations. I don't need my character sheet to look good! I don't want to have to print on every single part of the page!

I don't want to have to make my own character sheets for every game in Excel or Acrobat because the provided ones are so inadequate!